At many cocktail parties and buffet dinners, guests are required to simultaneously hold beverages while eating snacks or meals, either standing or sitting down. Much of the time a horizontal surface upon which a drink may be placed, such as a table top, is inconvenient to reach or unavailable. Frequently, the drinking vessel used is stemware, either brass or plastic. It is very difficult for most people to hold a liquid containing drinking vessel and eat from a hand or lap-held plate at the same time without appearing awkward or spilling some of the contents of the glass or the plate. Attempts have been made to alleviate the problem of literally not having enough hands under such conditions.
______________________________________ List of Prior Art U.S. Pat. No. Patentee ______________________________________ D 31,665 J. L. McKay D281,565 V. Stourton et al. 1,258,792 R. H. Lorimer 2,307,882 J. Freud et al. 2,413,535 W. Weidler 2,427,697 W. Weidler 2,643,046 J. A. Humphreys 2,719,414 J. H. Davis 2,916,180 J. Alger 3,036,717 R. N. Johnson ______________________________________
McKay discloses a spoon holder having 3 dish engaging fingers. Lorimer shows a plate-engaging cup clasps formed of shaped metal wire. Freud et al.'s combined food and beverage server has a hoop with clips for engaging a plate. A cup holder is connected to the hoop. The cup or glass holder illustrated by Weidler ('535) comprises a spring wire assembly engaging the bottom surface of a plate and connected to a loop above the plate for receiving a glass. Weidler ('697) shows a similar arrangement formed of cardboard or pressed fiber. Humphreys discloses a clamp for holding several items. Alger discloses a refreshment slate supporting frame having a cup holder. Johnson's mug tray clips onto a vertical surface such as the edge of a car window.
The glass holders most useful for a cocktail party are the ones shown in the Davis and Stourton patents. These patents disclose cup and glass holders which are detachably secured to plates by an opposed set of spring prong members angled the same orientation as the rim of a plate. These devices use an upper prong member and two lower prongs attached to the edge of the cup supporting bowl.
A commercial form of this type of device formed from plastic has recently been marketed as the PLATE MATE. The PLATE MATE device includes a slotted cup holding bowl having a flange connected to a three pronged clip which extends laterally therefrom. While this device is serviceable as far as its slotted bowl structure is concerned, its clip is insufficiently durable and breaks with use. The PLATE MATE was apparently designed for use with thin dinner ware and fine China since as soon as the rim of thick dinnerware is placed between the three prong members, the upper wide prong tends to crack and split along the line connecting it to the flange at the top of cup bowl.
One reason for the failure of the upper prong is that the device uses a single central upper prong element to provide most of the support for the stemware, which can be quite heavy if it is made of glass or lead crystal and is full or nearly full of wine. Secondly, the upper prong element is limited to being a single flat bar, not otherwise braced or reinforced while supporting a heavy load extending far from the lip of the bowl. The force of the weight is concentrated at the pivot-juncture of the prong with the flange and therefore breaks after some use at this juncture.